Appartementhaus Aurora

So we arrived at Bad Hofgastein after the shops had closed in the evening and as nothing was available to buy we ate at the Hotel Blu nearby which also deals with the check in for the apartments. We had travelled with Crystal who weren’t much help. We had asked for them to stop at a petrol station to buy milk on the way from the airport, but that was not possible apparently. When we arrived the rep just waved in the general direction of the hotel and told us “it’s up there” and so we dragged our baggage up the hill to join the melee at the tiny hotel Blu check in desk. The apartment was mostly as described. One bedroom, one put up bed in the lounge and a basic 3 ring electric hob, no oven or toaster but it did have a kettle. It was reasonably clean but not spotless and had clearly seen better days with threadbare carpets in places. Other than the sofa bed there was no other comfy chair, only four dining chairs. This appeared to contradict the photos in the particulars but we let that one go. There was a tv and the description claimed that uk satellite channels were available. Well we only found one Uk channel and that was the BBC world news. CNN was also there but no other English speaking channel. The apartment did have free Wi-Fi which was fine. Apart from what we should do with rubbish (more on this below) there was no other information in the apartment or the building. We had to explore and find out for ourselves how the ski buses worked and in this, again, Crystal were also useless. We were also promised a towel change mid week but had to chase hard for this from the hotel Blu reception before it happened. The apartment is right in the centre of the town which is a 10 minute walk from the ski lift. Or, two minutes by bus and the stop is 100 m from the apartment. Apparently it has a boot/ ski room with easy access to the street. Whilst this might even be true, we never found it. The only door from the ground floor lobby area (other than the main entrance) was permanently locked whilst we were there. It might well lead to the boot / ski room but we will never know one way or the other. In the end we left our skis at the lift station which saved a lot of hassle. They also ask you to segregate any rubbish and place it in the different containers. Once again, we never found them as they were probably hiding next to the missing boot/ski room. When we queried it with the hotel Blu reception they told us to leave it all outside our room. Restaurants in town are mixed. Some are really nice, others are down at heel. All are quite pricy. There are only a couple of bars that we saw and they were very quiet. There is an apres bar at the main ski lift which has live music sometimes and that wasn’t too bad. Bad Hofgastein is a quiet place. There is no apres “scene” so don’t come here if you are looking for a lively resort. The holiday was cheap to buy however and so on the whole it has been reasonable value.